Pekelis’ philosophy of life and his rule of action in life stemmed precisely from the multiplicity and the thoroughness of his personality. Pekelis the teacher, the thinker, and the man of action was the uninterrupted projection and unfolding of Pekelis the man.
By 1919 the climate for truly international educational, scientific and cultural exchange was much more favorable than it had been for centuries. There was then an eagerness to establish peace upon durable foundations as exemplified in the League of Nations. It was already obvious to many that a true community of nations could be developed only upon relatively common minimum standards of education, scientific knowledge and general culture.
The recent technological developments which culminated in the discovery of atomic energy, have absorbed the attention of the world, for the explosions of the atomic bombs offered a startling demonstration of the scale of forces that have been released by man. The destruction produced by the explosions, which surpassed anything known to date, created a tremendous impression and great uneasiness. But very few persons except workers in specialized laboratories realized that atomic energy is ready to serve not only as a destructive agent but also as a force for an unprecedented advance in the welfare of the world.
The [displaced person] fears the occupying armies only a little less than he fears the Germans. It is not that he fears being physically beaten or deliberately starved, but that he has learned from experience that army methods of administration tend to bring into his daily life a constant and inexplicable recurrence of discomforts and injustices, great and small. One day an order may be given that he must suddenly remove from the camp where he has begun to adjust, that he must leave behind his friends and associations, and go to another camp perhaps many miles away.
This article is a letter from a German anti-Nazi lawyer to his friend, an American scholar of distinguished standing. The writer of the letter is known to many of our academic colleagues as a man who consistently opposed the Nazis and their progenitors, the nationalists and militarists. He is the kind of man that represents the hope of German democracy. We publish his communication without signature, for reasons that are obvious.
Our present social security system is attacked because it lacks comprehensiveness. But the comprehensive relief system also falls short of offering an all-around solution for the problem of want. For the sharecropper, the migrant worker, and other underprivileged groups in our society, the system fails to find a "productive" solution. Nor does it protect the worker whose wages are too low to allow him to live at the minimum level of health and decency. The payment of wage subsidies to such workers is no remedy.
The Employment Act of 1946 has given rise to two official economic documents: the first annual report of the council of Economic Advisers and the President’s economic report. Of these the latter will be discussed here more extensively than the former, because it alone gives detailed material concerning the employment outlook for 1947. This in no way diminishes the importance of the Council Report as a statement of principle, particularly the sections entitled "The Political Philosophy of the Employment Act" and "The Economic Philosophy of Sustained Employment."
Probably the most ambitious and most promising survey in the history of social studies in the United States is the Yankee City research project. Under the leadership of W. Lloyd Warner, a team of social anthropologists and sociologists applied the techniques of modern social anthropology to the investigation of an old New England community during the years 1930-35. Three volumes of their findings have already appeared and three more are scheduled for publication.
Review of book by Charles Abrams. York and London: Harper. 1946. 428 pp. $5.
Review of book by Lewis Meriam. Washington: Brookings Institution. 1946. 912 pp.
Review of book by Wilbert E. Moor. New York: Macmillan 1946. xii & 555 pp. $4.
Review of book by Ernest Greenwood. New York: King's Crown Press. 1945. 166 p.
Review of book by Robert K. Merton. New York: Harper. 1946. xiii & 210 pp.
Review of book by Sheldon Glueck. Foreword by Justice Robert H. Jackson.] New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1946. 121 pp.
Review of book by Ernst Cassirer. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1946. 303 pp.
Review of book by Alfred Verdross-Rossberg. Vienna: Julius Springer. 1946. 174 pp.